"You have to be odd to be number one" is just one of many memorable and famous lines quoted from the immensely popular children’s books of Dr Seuss.
These humorous writings and illustrations are etched in the minds of many, because children love to use their imaginations, and Dr Seuss was filled with nonsensical rhymes and strange kooky characters. What a fun way it is to learn how to read.
Its initial purpose was to increase vocabulary to 220 words. As rhyming helps develop literacy, promotes language, emotional and brain development and has good social benefits, these books have been a mainstay in children's literature for decades.
When a recent study to evaluate claims that Theodore Seuss Geisle's books were anti-racist, his 50+ children's books and 2200 characters were examined and everyone was shocked at the findings, which is why this month, six Dr Seuss books will stop being published due to alleged "racist imagery". Many schools are choosing not to participate in longstanding annual Dr Seuss celebrations, due to "racial undertones" that are "not suitable for 'culturally responsive' learning", as reported by The Daily Wire.
What will the politically correct movement fix its gaze upon next? I have hunches in bunches as I remember the first of Octember....but seriously, if Seuss’s justifiably beloved work, written over 60 years ago, is vulnerable, everything is!
the cancel culture today
seems to get in the way
but what can we say
in case we are named
a bigot, a racist or conspiracy theorist?
the world has gone mad
now Mr Potatohead's dead
strange as it seems cancel culture beams with pride in their work history is usurped the intent is to clean anything that they deem discriminatory Goodbye history
but it fails to see that antiquity
has a way to teach when understanding is reached don't underestimate
how past mistakes where we miscalculate can educate
The righteous, politically-correct, cancel culture group-speak is one perspective and it's an extreme view. I ask: Has anything extreme resulted in any sustained good? Isn't erasing the past because you're not happy with it, just another form of ignorance and denial?
My personal understanding of the Dr Seuss books was the message under each story of the universal triumph of good over evil. That was my perspective, from my individual model of the world. We are all unique creatures who each have their own take on the world. Isn’t this the ideal basis for a diverse and accepting culture?
They went looking for the "culturally inappropriate" and they found it. If you go looking for something, you will always find it, because everything, good and bad, is there, all the time. We cannot silence or erase something simply because we don't like it. We should shine a light on things that discriminate, marginalise and victimise people to educate, if we truly want to learn from them.
This is what Advocate Me has been doing: Representing some of the most marginalised and ostracised people who were detained in nine Melbourne public housing towers, on the 4th of July 2020. Yes, ironically, American Independence Day. We are happy to say that we have filed their claim in the Victorian Supreme Court today.
We can't say whether the cat in the hat will come back, or if Mr Potatohead will remain gender fluid, but we can assure you that we will continue our fight, with our sights now squarely set on filing the National Class Action imminently.
My favourite Dr Seuss quote: "When something bad happens you have three choices. You can either let it define you, let it destroy you, or you can let it strengthen you." In keeping with the idea of a universal triumph of good over evil, we say this is the time to define and strengthen each of us, as we fight with our sights set on an outcome for good.